Fading Dreams
by English-tenchi
Summary: Sakura realises the harsh truth of how very frail the human body is. At the tender age of eighteen this is a most grievous time for her, one that she may not recover from.
1. Good Times

Fading Dreams  
  
By Tenchi1987  
  
Chapter 1: Good Times  
  
With youth comes a fantastical belief that we are impervious to harm and that illness, disease and death is a realm into which only the elderly walk. Of course this is, although a beautiful dream, no more real than the prospect of world peace.  
  
It was deep into winter when Sakura realised the harsh truth of how very frail the human body is. At the tender age of eighteen this was a most grievous time for her, one that she almost didn't recover from.  
  
December   
  
"Ohayo!" Sakura, as lively as always, joined her father for breakfast, something they always made time to do, as it seemed a rare event that they were both home on the same evening.  
  
"Ohayo Sakura. Only a week until Christmas, are you looking forward to it?" He asked whilst bringing in a sizeable feast of pancakes from the kitchen.  
  
"Yeah, especially with Touya and Yukito coming to stay, we barely get to see them anymore." She smiled as she thought about it; it was always fun to see her older brother and his boyfriend. She only really got to see them if she needed Yue's help.  
  
"Mmm that will be good. Any plans with your friends?" the words came out muffled over the numerous pancakes being consumed.  
  
"Yeah, I'll be seeing Tomoyo, Syaoran and Eriol on Christmas eve for gift swapping!" She grinned, the four of them always hung out together, they were practically inseparable ever since they were kids.  
  
Father and Daughter finished their small feast together until her dad headed off to the university and Sakura was left with the house to herself since her school had already closed for the holidays. Time off usually meant spending hours playing video games with her guardian Kero, but today there was more important stuff to do...  
  
"Shopping!!! But I was about to beat my all time high score!!!" Kero yelled at the thought of having to stay stuffed inside a handbag for the day.  
  
"Kero, it's Christmas in less than a week and I still don't have presents for my friends!" Sakura grabbed her bag, shoving Kero inside. His protests fell on deaf ears, once she had set her mind on something there was no way to deter Sakura from doing it.  
  
So Kero had to spend the entire day being jostled from place to place whilst his Mistress tried to find the perfect gifts for her three friends. By four o'clock in the afternoon she sat in a secluded corner of a café and let the suffering animal out. "I'm so sorry it's taking this long! But I have Tomoyo and Eriol's gifts." Her reply was a glare from an angry Kero who was determined not to speak to her, "Hmm well if your so mad at me, I guess you wont be wanting this." As she spoke she pulled out a fresh piece of chocolate cake that she had bought from the counter.  
  
"So what did you get them?" The rather more pleasant guardian asked, firmly taking hold of the cake and sitting on the table in front of her.  
  
Sakura pulled out numerous bags from under the table and showed them to Kero, after hours of browsing she had picked out a beautiful deep purple dress, a book about advanced video recording, a recipe book and a CD for Tomoyo. For Eriol she had chosen a long coat, which was a red so dark it almost looked black and a beautiful hand bound diary. Kero looked very impressed, "Wow Sakura they will love these, but what about the Chinese brat?"  
  
"I haven't found anything yet." She sighed, nothing she had looked at for Syaoran seemed special enough. She had no idea what she could get for him that would have any meaning whatsoever.  
  
"But you've been looking for hours, I'm sure there must be something that kids into. How about video games!"  
  
"Err he says they are a waste of time." Sakura closed her ears as she began to receive the 'Video games help to prepare me for battle in the real world' lecture. Her eyes wandered to the café window and a small shop opposite she hadn't noticed before. As she looked a jade coloured top seemed to call to her from the display. It was a beautifully embroidered Chinese style shirt, which seemed almost too good to be true.  
  
Grabbing Kero she exited the café immediately despite his protests about not having had the chance to finish his cake and stood in front of the store. "Hoe! It's so perfect!" she whispered to herself.  
  
"No way Sakura that's far to good for the brat, I mean what if you buy him this and all he gets you is a lousy box of chocolates." Passers by started to looked inquisitively at Sakura's handbag so she quickly went inside the little shop.  
  
"Can I help you madam?" A friendly shop assistant approached and apart from him Sakura couldn't see anyone else in the entire place.  
  
"Um yes, I was wondering about the green shirt in your window, it's for a friend." Her cheeks turned a faint shade of rose as she thought about Syaoran.  
  
"The Chinese one I presume, it is lovely isn't. We have it in all sizes if you know which you need." She didn't and had to spend a good amount of time trying to figure out which size would in fact be right. After much thinking she finally came to a decision. "I'm glad I could be of service, the shirt is fifty pounds (92 US dollars or 10,062 Yen)"  
  
"OK great, I'll have to use my credit card though," Sakura didn't care how much or little she spent on her friends, just as long as she had the right presents she was happy, and so after hours of perusing round the mall she could go home content that everyone would love her gifts.  
  
Thanks for reading, I'll update as soon as possible, please review. 


	2. Christmas Eve Part 1

Chapter 2: Christmas Eve

"Bye, dewa mata." Sakura waved to her father, grabbing a jacket without even noticing how little good it would do her against the harsh December chill outside. As usual she was in too much of a rush to take her time over such small details and that wasn't a part of her that was going to change any time soon.

It didn't take her long to notice the mistake as a fresh layer of snow began to fall and along with it her fingers began to turn a worrying shade of blue. It didn't take her too long to get to her friend's house though where she could escape what was slowly escalating into a blizzard.

"Sakura! Get in your freezing!" A concerned Tomoyo answered the door, which was a change from the maid she was used to greeting.

Her friend ushered her gently into a huge living room, which still took Sakura a while to get used to, it was so lavishly and grandly decorated she felt very misplaced whenever she stood in there. The sight of an enormous log fire blazing away soon made her feel very grateful to be there and she began to warm her blue digits in its fiery glow.

"Sakura, it's nice to see you." Eriol smiled as she jumped around finally noticing that three faces were looking intently at her.

"Gomenasai I didn't see you there, Eriol, Syaoran it's good to see you!" With surprisingly flushed cheeks since she was still freezing cold, Sakura embraced her friends and sat down on a large sofa next to Syaoran. Her friends couldn't help but smile they were all more than used to her being a little muddled at times.

"Great now that we're all here, I'll go get some tea and cakes that I made yesterday!" Tomoyo was already bouncing half way across the room when Syaoran offered his help and followed shaking his head at the excitable figure ahead of him. Sakura was now left alone with her old friend; it had been over year since she had last seen him.

"Eriol it's good to see you again, but I'm surprised you're not spending Christmas in England with Kaho." She removed her jacket, it was doing little to help her warm up since it had gotten wet in the snow.

"Kaho is spending the holidays with her family, it was her idea that I come here, besides it's been too long since I have seen you. Besides I miss Japan." He smiled warmly at old memories he had gained with Tomoyo and all his friends in Tomeoda. "Sounds like the others are coming." Eriol was right; the jingle of cutlery banging on what sounded like at least a dozen trays was slowly approaching.

"You do realize there are only four of us right?" Syaoran tottered into view performing an incredible balancing act with three trays piled high with all sorts of treats. Tomoyo wasn't far behind, only managing two of the trays, this time with tea on them, however, to Eriol and Sakura's surprise, that wasn't the last of the trays, two maids came in after their friends with even more trays with an assortment of food and beverages alike.

Once everything was in place the foursome found eleven trays had been placed on the large table in the centre of the room and all of it was for them alone. "Umm so maybe I got a little bit carried away, but I have the most kawaii set of Christmas shaped cookie cutters!" Tomoyo pronounced grabbing at a reindeer biscuit.

Sakura suddenly burst out laughing, she couldn't help it, and Tomoyo was not helping with such an innocent look on her face. Syaoran and Eriol soon found themselves laughing hysterically too and they only chortled louder at their confused friend still holding onto her reindeer.

After the trio had calmed down they all began to slowly make their way through what seemed like an endless task of eating as much of the wonderful food they could. Syaoran looked over at Sakura who was smiling whilst listening to Eriol talk about London, however he noticed she was still shaking slightly, her trousers were still damp and she was only wearing a t-shirt. Although Tomoyo's house was warm it would take a long while for Sakura to fully warm up again.

Sakura could feel herself being watched, she turned towards her friend smiling as their eyes met and offered him a star shaped cookie that he took gratefully. After eating it he began to remove the dark green fleece he had been wearing leaving a very attractive emerald silk shirt. Wordlessly he passed the fleece over to her and before she could protest he turned his attention to Eriol who was trying to explain what a mince pie was since it didn't have any meat in it.

Sakura pulled the jumper over her head, immediately feeling the difference in her frozen limbs. Syaoran's familiar aftershave rose from the material making her smile, she was always wanting to ask him what it was; it was such a subtle aroma which would forever remind her of him. Looking across to him she could feel herself blushing slightly like she had when they were kids and life was much simpler.

Wow that took a long time :S, sorry about that, I'll update it quicker next time I promise


	3. Christmas Eve Part 2

Chapter 3 Christmas Presents!

After an afternoon of eating and generally enjoying each other's company, the four friends found themselves in a comfortable state of complete relaxation which basically involved lying across the couches, or in Eriol's case being sprawled across the rug in front of the fire.

Sakura's eyes were heavy; her head was resting on Syaoran's lap. "Mmm, I wish we could stay like this forever!" She yawned smiling across at Tomoyo.

"But we can't! We have to swap presents!" Tomoyo suddenly bounced up and raced out of the room, showing far too much energy as far as the others were concerned.

"Would that involve moving to get them, because if it does I would like to vote against it." Eriol moaned from his place on the floor.

"I'll second that, not that I could move if I wanted," Syaoran grinned down at Sakura.

"Oh I'm sorry!" She immediately got up to the amusement of both of the lads.

"I was only kidding! Honestly I didn't mind." Syaoran smiled at his friend, putting his arm around her and pulling her close to him again, this time she rested her head on his shoulder. Neither of them noticed Eriol laughing to himself while watching the display.

"PRESENTS! Tomoyo practically flew back into the room, with armfuls of neatly wrapped packages that she laid upon the floor near to Eriol. "Come on! We have to take turns to give each other presents!" A huge smile was plastered across her face, she had always one of those people that became inexplicably excited over the December holiday.

With an awful lot of grumbling and much hesitation the other three succumbed and fetched the gifts they had brought with them. They had each made sure they put labels on their gifts like Tomoyo has asked and soon found out why. Before they had had a chance to get back into the room she had snatched the parcels and was organising them into piles according to names. The others were more than happy to leave her to organise everything while they made themselves comfortable on the rug in front of her, Sakura leaning against Syaoran once more.

"Finished! Who wants to go first?" Tomoyo grinned brightly at the coloured paper and colourful ribbons before her.

"Why don't you start?" Sakura smiled, she felt half asleep once more, she was thoroughly warmed up and felt wonderfully full up.

"Ooo, as long as you don't mind of course." She didn't wait for anyone to answer, she simply began ripping through her pile as if she was on a mission. As soon as she was finished she pounced on each of her friends with delight at the presents they had gotten her before scrambling back to throw away all the paper and put her gifts into a neat pile.

"Eriol your turn!" Syaoran and Sakura both chimed in, grinning when Tomoyo began to push him over to his pile. Eriol gratefully thanked everyone for their gifts before settling back against a chair with a small smile on his face and his hand over his pie of presents.

"Who's next?" Tomoyo asked expectantly looking over at two very comfortable friends.

"I'll go," Syaoran gently got up, making sure he didn't bang her head. He opened Eriol and Tomoyo's presents first and was very impressed with what they had gotten him (A/N Sorry but I thought it would take far too long to write out what everybody got for everybody else), hugging Tomoyo. Sakura began to pay more attention when he opened her gift; she almost held her breath in anticipation.

"Wow, Sakura, this is great!" Syaoran held the green shirt in front of it, his face obviously surprised. A faint blush came to his cheeks as he approached Sakura and hugged her tightly. "I love it, thank you." He whispered.

"Your turn!" Tomoyo was soon ushering Sakura over to the final pile of presents. Tomoyo had spent far too much on everybody and her best friend was no exception. She had made her two outfits, one was a beautiful crimson dress, very festive and the other was a very grown up costume to wear when using her magic. She had also bought Sakura a brand new CD player, because her old one had been broken by Kero only a couple of weeks before.

"Thanks Tomoyo, I love both these outfits, plus I was missing my music." The two girls hugged and she resumed her opening. Off Eriol she had received an antique-looking book, which had been written by Clow Reed himself and a huge box of chocolates.

After thanking her English friend she opened Syaoran's present. Inside was a beautiful, ornate, silver frame with an old picture of her mother. The picture had been touched up so it looked brand new and was in much better condition than it had been before. Seeing it brought tears to Sakura's eyes. She moved across the room and hugged Syaoran tightly.

"It's beautiful."

"I'm glad you like it, when we leave can I walk you home?"

"Yeah of course, thanks." Sakura smiled at her friend, touched by the thought he had put into her gift.

..................

I know the story is moving slowly, it will speed up soon I promise!!

Please review!


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